Joe Thompson, U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Minnesota fraud, resigns with other senior members

Joe Thompson, the leading federal prosecutor and public voice on uncovering rampant fraud in Minnesota, has resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the United States and this office,” Thompson wrote in an email obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune. He did not give any reason for his resignation or indication of where he is going next.

He did not respond to initial requests for comment.

Thompson’s resignation was followed by other senior members of the office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Jacobs, chief of the criminal division and second in command on fraud cases and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Calhoun-Lopez. Jacobs was instrumental in prosecuting the Feeding Our Future trial and was part of the team prosecuting Vance Boelter for his alleged politically motivated rampage. Calhoun-Lopez oversaw a series of federal racketeering trials targeting members of Minneapolis street gangs that ended in nearly all 40 defendants convicted.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Melinda Williams, former criminal chief and current counsel to the U.S. Attorney, is also among the departures. Thompson, Jacobs and Williams represent the top three ranking prosecutors in the office. A source familiar with the resignations said six attorneys have left the office, so far.

The departures come after an internal email was recently sent by Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen. He directed prosecutors to “say nothing” about the FBI’s investigation into the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, specifically to law enforcement and media. Only assistant U.S. Attorneys designated by him may speak to investigators about the federal probe, he wrote.

“The shooting investigation is highly sensitive,” Rosen wrote. “It has been the subject of continuing inflammatory statements by state and local elected officials.”

The Justice Department’s civil rights division saw another mass exodus of attorneys last year after the Trump administration shifted the department’s longstanding mission of protecting constitutional rights of marginalized communities. In May of 2025, attorneys for the DOJ moved to dismiss the long-awaited federal consent decree over Minneapolis police, mandating sweeping reforms after the murder of George Floyd.

Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement that Thompson’s departure was a direct result of President Trump pushing out career professionals and “replacing them with sycophants.”

“Joe is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans,” Walz wrote. “This is a huge loss for our state.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara also lamented the loss of Thompson.

“The legitimacy of the justice system depends on institutions — not rhetoric," O’Hara said in a statement. “Joe Thompson is an institution within law enforcement.”

“When you lose the leader responsible for making the fraud cases, it tells you this [immigration enforcement] isn’t really about prosecuting fraud,” O’Hara said.

Thompson was appointed acting U.S. Attorney of Minnesota by President Donald Trump in May 2025 and served in that role for six months until Rosen took office last October. Thompson was the lead prosecutor in the sprawling Feeding Our Future food fraud case.

Thompson covered several other high-profile cases during his brief tenure, including filing federal charges against Boelter in the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and attempted killing of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

But Thompson has been most notable for uncovering fraud throughout the state. “Our state is far and away the leader in fraud now, and everyone sees it,” Thompson told the Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board last year. He has claimed that the fraud is in the billions — a number that has been contested by Walz.

Thompson has been considered a potential political candidate and is rumored to be a candidate for a new position with the Department of Justice that would oversee a multiagency effort to investigate fraud in the United States.